Changing History
by Nature9000
Summary: Struggling with a difficult decision in the midst of a third world war, Trina is visited by her descendant, urging her to make the right choice. When it's revealed that, for some reason, she makes a decision that could bring about the end of the world, she determines why and must race to prevent the greatest tragedy to ever result from a war.


Changing History

Disclaimer: I don't own this stuff, only the idea is mine

A/N: This came from watching a movie tonight, the idea that the fate of an entire future can be changed by the decision of one, or many. I'm going to admit this involves Hunger Games, but this is also before the entire series and is set in Victorious realm because the "ancestor" in question is in a fandom that I write. That being said, I will start off with Katniss.

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-COSTS OF NUCLEAR WAR, CAN IT BE AVOIDED?-

2150, Katniss Everdeen trembled upon awaking from her most recent nightmare. She turned her eyes to her two young children playing outside in the yard, seemingly enjoying their play despite the constant state of darkness they lived in.

Regardless of whether the rebellion had succeeded and whether the Hunger Games were really over, she couldn't shake the vivid memories and traumas she'd suffered. How could she be a mother, a wife, and how could she live a normal life when she'd lost her little sister-and practically everyone that she'd ever loved. All due to the tyranny of the government that had prevailed for so long.

_"Are you sure you want to do this?"_ Peeta's words played her memory like the strings of a harp echoing in the distance. They created doubt that ran rampant through her. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and exhaled through her nostrils. Her mind was made up. Through one of the old victors, a genius who helped fuel the rebellion that ended the Hunger Games once and for all, she found a prototype of an old time machine that he'd been working on.

She was going play the 'hero' once again, but this time, it would not end in President Snow's death or even President Coin. No, they would never have a chance, for she would foresee they never existed enough to take the land by storm.

Katniss had found the one woman with the power to change everything, and that woman was not only the first woman president of the America, but an direct ancestor of hers. She came from a bloodline long trampled upon by the Capitol-for if this bloodline had been remembered, maybe she would never have been a Tribune, or perhaps her little sister would still be alive.

_"What is the significance of this ancestor?" _Her mentor had asked this question upon her announcement of this decision. As if he did not know, this had been the last president of the united states before the war that destroyed the world. Before the very bombs went off that turned every member of every nation into nothing but _savages._

She tore her blankets from the bed and stormed out of her bedroom, brushing past Peeta, who was busy preparing breakfast. She stopped and gazed at a photograph of her little sister and slowly closed her hands up. "Kat, it's today isn't it?" Peeta walked behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. She flinched at the touch and lifted her hand up, slowly moving her fingers along his.

"Yes. You're not going to stop me. Nobody is…"

"But why? Everything's fine now…the Hunger Games are over, there are no more tribunes-"

"Over? Everything's fine? How can you say that?" She spun around, glaring at him with stern eyes. He stiffened and let his hands fall to his sides as her voice increased in ferocity. "Look outside! Our children _still_ breathe the effects of radiation from a century ago! There's a memorial for the lost tribunes of the Games where people can go and _watch their deaths over and over_. The survivors-you should know more than anyone-constantly relive those games _every day!" _ She scratched her forehead and lowered her voice carefully. "How can you say everything's fine? Snow's gone, but so is Prim." Her arm flew to the side and her eyes remained locked with Peeta's. "Who's to stop some other leader to step up, get cocky and try to become a dictator again? Who's to say the Hunger Games won't return? There's no real democracy anymore-there are no other nations. Only islands filled with savages. This is the only way…"

"But-what if we can't be together? If you change everything, then what we know now…" He looked down and Katniss moved her eyebrows together. Slowly she lifted her hand up, cupping his cheek in hers.

"Will never have happened. I know." His eyes drifted towards her gaze and his shoulders lifted up sadly. "Look. I will always love you. I will always love our children, and I guarantee you nothing can change that. If I succeed in my plan-my ancestor was a fighter herself, she knew to do the right thing-hell I think she was pressured into pushing for a quick end to that war. If I can stop that from happening, just think…all of the lives lost to the hunger games-you counted them yourself, how many? How many Peeta?"

"Almost two thousand…"

"Right. That doesn't even include the lives lost during the rebellion. That doesn't include my little sister." She tore her hand away and gazed over at the photograph of Prim, seated on the countertop. "From what mom said about my ancestor, she loved her little sister too and would do anything for her. Well…this is what I'm doing for my sister, for our children…for everyone."

"If you don't succeed?"

"Then nothing changes." That was what they told her anyway. She still had to be careful, because any small change could lead to consequence-not that she thought there'd be anything worse than the post-apocalyptic world they lived in now. "I will succeed. I always do, right?" Her heart broke as she recalled the victories and losses she'd lived through. "We've seen more than what we should have seen, and maybe. Just maybe…if I can convince my ancestor to get the nations to have a better look at the 'future' they're trying to build for themselves and their children…they'll realize what's important."

"Then do your best. If you make it, and things do change, then…you know I love you." She smiled sadly as he leaned in and kissed the corner of her lips. She breathed in his kiss and curved her mouth into a softer smile.

"Always."

In the year 2043, America's 50th president was caught up in the middle of the third and most devastating world war. Katrina Vega, as she kept her maiden name when she married was being persuaded by her advisors to do what no other president of the United States had ever done since Harry S. Truman-end the war with nuclear power.

The Russians had already fired upon the US with their own nuclear weapons, to which Britain returned fire upon them. Right now everyone with nuclear arms was throwing weapons like they were lighting fireworks for the Fourth of July! "You can stop this," Her chief advisor and Vice President whispered into her ear. "When you go to the meeting of nations tonight, you show them America can't be tampered with-give permission to release all of our weapons."

"If we do that, I'll be accused of Genocide," Trina replied coldly. "What good can come of it?"

"It will give everyone what they want. An end to the war!"

"It's a quick end, if you ask me." Her advisor was a man by the name of Artie Snow, he was a stout figure with balding grey hair and a handlebar moustache. "And it would come at the expense of what? Untold lives?"

"Look, look, it's true you came in at the middle of a war, but this country needs a fighter. They need a soldier, and that's you. Why do you think they elected you? Former General of the United States Air Force, Governor of California-now President of the United States. There's a reason they elected you! You're a fighter! You're what this country needs, what this _world_ needs?"

She smacked her hands on the desk and shot herself up, raising her voice as the vein started to pop from her forehead. "Are you attempting to use my prior credentials as an excuse to get me to destroy the world?"

"Who says the world will be destroyed?" The man chuckled nervously and walked around, gently dusting off her padded shoulders. "Blow up an island or two, uninhabited, show the other nations what guns we're packing! Give the order and end this war early!" Her eyes narrowed as the man encircled her once more. "All talk has given us over the last many centuries is delayed action. You're a woman of action, a _President_ of action!"

"Go figure the third world war finally breaks out, every nation's trigger happy, and you tell me the nation wants the president of the united states to be as trigger happy as the rest?" Trina crossed her arms and started to growl. "I didn't get elected to show them that the first woman president is going to bomb every country! It's been said for over two hundred years a woman president will let 'let her emotions in the way' or 'rule on her period'." She leaned forward as Artie reclined back. "It's not going to happen."

"What do I need to do?"

"Get out of my office before I show you what a woman with a headache can do to you." The man stammered for a second, then left with a huff. Trina slowly relaxed her muscles and rubbed her right temple as she took her seat. "God why does it seem like I filled my cabinet with idiots?"

"T-This can't be right." Trina's head shot up at the sound of a feminine voice. A woman with a long brown braid over her shoulder slowly stepped in. The girl looked in her early twenties and was dressed in what appeared to be rags. "The history books say you drop those bombs…they cause further retaliation, the other countries only hit harder, the world goes up in fire."

"I'm not going to be the president to make that mistake."

"But…You _are."_

Trina was taken aback, she was trying to think of a way to negotiate a peace agreement-and despite being unable to find something the world could agree on-she wasn't planning on taking her advisors or vice president's plan. "Who are you? How did you get past the secret service? Also…_what_ are you wearing?" The woman looked over her outfit with a frown and raised eyebrows. "We need to get you into something nicer…I have some blazers you can choose from."

"No! I'm here to stop you from making a terrible mistake."

"And what terrible mistake is that?"

"This." Wasting no time the girl pulled out a strange device and set it down on her desk. A hologram shot out, startling Trina. As she studied this strange phenomenon, she shot a quick glare at the girl. "I'm your descendant, Katniss Everdeen. Also known as the 'Mockingjay' for rebellion purposes against the Capitol. In my time we're led by a ruthless dictator, or were, in a post-apocalyptic world filled with savages."

"Okay. Assuming I believe you." This did sound suspicious, but she'd never seen an actual hologram projector in her life. This was stuff of Hollywood, of movies. Things only her sister would be seen in. "What causes this 'destruction'?"

"You do, or…that's what is recorded. Look…" Trina relaxed her shoulders and rose to her feet, locking her wrists behind her back. As Katniss worked, she studied the woman. There were some features that seemed to match her, such as the girl's jaw and the girl's eyes. Even her hair had the same lushness to it.

Finally the hologram projected an image of Trina at an international conference. She was arguing with the leaders of the other nations. "There can only be one end to this war," she heard herself say. With great dismay, she watched as the image of herself informed the other leaders that America was given orders by her to release all their bombs.

"This will cost more lives!" Russia exclaimed.

"You should have thought about that before you unloaded your own nukes on innocent civilians. That's the cost of war, isn't it?"

"I've seen enough," Trina stated calmly. Katniss did not turn off the hologram and Trina watched an angry Russia declare the release of his own weapons, or what remained of them. "Katniss, I have seen enough…" She began to tremble as she watched the remaining leaders follow suit, and one by one, all nations were releasing their weapons. Her heart rate began to accelerate and her eyes widened as she watched. "I've seen enough, damn it!" She smacked the device off the desk and growled as Katniss looked up sorrowfully at her. "What are you showing me? I would never give that order!"

"But you do! That's what the history books say."

"Then your history books are wrong! The sheer magnitude of lives…on my shoulders." She fell back into her chair and moved her fingers to her forehead. Her body tensed as her voice trembled. "Why? Why would I make that order? Why would I make that call?!"

"Not like it isn't heading that way anyway with this war, I suppose your order only made things worse. You were the last official 'President' of America…we've had 'presidents' but not in the same way. Dictators-dictators who made sport out of teenagers by throwing them all together to fight to the death…"

She lifted her head and narrowed her eyes, still suspicious and unsure of what to believe. "What?"

"It's after the first rebellion. After this war, all the nations were destroyed and only a portion of America remains. We don't call it that any longer…but one person seized control. Congress didn't exist, the branches of government were eradicated. The dark ages came along and the Capitol quelled the first rebellion. After that, they created the Hunger Games, which the entire country watched as twenty four teenagers battled for their lives-punishment for the first rebellion."

"So, you come back here…in time?"

"Yeah…to try and stop that from ever happening. To keep the nuclear war from happening-from destroying human life. The Earth is almost inhabitable!"

"What year is this?"

"2150…almost…" She moved her hand to her chest and started to frown. This was only a little more than a century. How could she change things so suddenly? She hunched over her desk and groaned as she rubbed her temples.

"Even if I wanted to, I can't think of anything that would sum up a peace treaty. I can't think of anything that all the leaders can agree on."

"Maybe I can?"

"How?"

"By showing them…what's going to happen…"

She was still trying to figure out what was going on with herself and why she'd give the order to drop nuclear bombs. "What-what happens after the act?" Katniss bowed her head and slowly turned away, shrugging her shoulders.

"You're assassinated." A jolt of pain struck her with enough force to knock her off her feet.

"Oh. Of course. Probably because of my order."

"Not a lot of people were happy about that. No."

"I'm starting to wonder what Artie's getting out of this. He becomes president if something happens to me."

"He _is_ the ancestor of President Coriolanus Snow. Then again, the rule had been something of a dynasty until we unseated him in our second rebellion." How fitting, her own descendent unseats the descendent of her presidential successor.

"If all this were true, then you still can't explain to me how or why I would make that call. Not to mention, if you're my descendent, why are you dressed like you're poor?" Her eyes drifted to the hologram projector and her lips turned to a scoff. "Nevermind."

"You were called the Terror President, and of course our family was considered plaque for a long time. In fact, your sister's granddaughter was one of the first tribunes in the first ever hunger games. She was…the first killed." Trina coughed as her heart sped at a faster pace. She stumbled to the right and clenched her hand onto the corner of her desk while clutching her chest. "Are you okay?"

"Do I _look_ like I'm okay?" She felt like she was having a heart attack. "How do I stop this? Obviously the answer would be for me not to make that decision, but I have to show up. I have to say something at the conference."

Suddenly a strange beeping noise rang aloud and Katniss instantly checked the strange watch on her wrist. Trina's eyebrow rose as the girl's face fell. "I think I know what is wrong."

"What?"

"One of my friends from my time was doing research and relaying information through this communicator-don't ask how it works, it's complicated."

"I wasn't going to." She rubbed the back of her head, chuckling nervously as the girl paced the floor. "They were looking through some of Snow's old files and they found something interesting, his ancestor's personal notes-locked away in his own personal vault."

"Okay." Trina circled her hand in the air and sat down on the corner of her desk. "Continue on." Katniss slowly looked up, pressing her lips together. "The military's still working on that mask project, right?"

"What mask project?"

"It says here that your VP uses one of the pens that the military scientists were testing to change their image to look like their opponents. Apparently you're sent a note alerting you that your family's in immediate danger-you went to help them instead while-"

"Artie attends the conference as myself?" She beat her hand on the desk and cursed under her breath. "Snow went after my family?"

"Yeah…Apparently they grabbed your sister from work and her children from school, then he issues a threat to your family." It made sense now, sort of. Artie must have used his credentials as vice president to gain access to the top secret invention.

When she was through, she was going to order them to stop all work on the damn device.

"What else happens? Sate my curiosity…"

"You're assassinated by an angry mob shortly after returning to the White House, and he assumes presidency."

"Okay…" She grabbed the phone off her desk and Katniss looked at her with growing wonder. She grumbled as she dialed the General of the Armed Forces-the one person she trusted at this point. When the woman on the other end of the line answered, she spoke plainly and swiftly. "Samantha, I need your full attention." It was Sam Puckett, or Valentine-as she married Cat's older, military driven brother. She only referred to the General by name when she was angry.

"What is it, Miss President?"

"I need to know if Vice President Snow has accessed the military base yet."

"He was just here, yes, he had interest in the top secret masque device we're working on."

"Did you release it to him?"

"No, protocol states we cannot do that. Hold on though." Trina listened to the sound of keystrokes in the background, followed by an urgent swear. "Shit, the cameras show it's missing. You don't think he would take it, do you?"

"Crap…I need you to send units out, _stat."_

"What's going on? Talk to me?"

"No time. I have to move quickly. Send units to my sister's house, her work, her children's school…"

"Can we do that?"

"You have my orders!" She hung up the phone and pulled out her personal cell, it was time to contact Sinjin and let him know to move the children to safety. As she dialed the number her eyes flew to Katniss. "You! Come with me, and bring that damn projector. Whatever you've got to show me, I want the other leaders of the nation to see it as well…I will not be forced to go down in history as the 'terror president' or the one that dropped the bombs!"

Within the hour, she was at the conference with Katniss, and she could hear Snow speaking as herself. Angrily, she stepped out, proclaiming an end to everyone's talking. A wave of gasps ran out as Trina glared at her vice president in her form. "That is not the president," Trina growled, "That is my vice president."

Several soldiers rode in past her as Artie sneered. The soldiers pulled the masque device from his pocket and reverted his image, further shocking the leaders. They promptly dragged him down and Trina stopped them in time to step before Artie and glare into his eyes. "First and foremost, Artie. You will no longer be a part of my ticket."

"You don't know what you're doing," Artie growled.

"Oh I know perfectly what I'm doing." He narrowed his eyes as Trina grasped her wrists behind her back and walked past him. "I'm calling for an end to this war, and not just an end, but for the destruction of nuclear warheads." Artie's eyes widened as the soldiers began to move him off. "Stop! I want him to see what he wanted to begin. The future, _our future_, our children's futures…" She spread her arms out, looking at the cameras with a subtle smirk. "I want the world to see what is to become of this world if this war persists."

She moved to her seat and looked out to Katniss. Her heart ached when she saw a tear strolling down the woman's face. She clapped her hands and motioned for her to walk. "You've got center stage now, Kat. Better prepare yourself."

"Madam President, what is all this?" China's leader inquired angrily. Trina cleared her throat and pointed to Artie.

"Artie was planning on unleashing our weapons and distracting me by threatening my family."

"How the hell did you know?" Artie growled. "How did you manage to figure it out?" He struggled in the soldier's tight grip and growled at the man.

"I found out because of this woman here. Katniss Everdeen, apparently a descendant of mine. She knows what is to come, she has lived in a post-apocalyptic world that _we leaders_ have created for our children. Our war, this war that began over nothing, has destroyed the very world that we want to preserve."

"Just to show you that I am from the future," Katniss breathed out heavily and set the projector down at her feet. "Everything in your personal pasts were recorded, this will show it. This will show everything…" Trina watched as the projector activated, shocking all in attendance.

It was not long before everyone in the room did indeed believe her to be from the future. This was no magic act, there was no device in existence that could generate this technology, or the other technology that she had on her physical item which she displayed to the group of leaders.

Finally the time came for them to view what the world was like in the future, and what they saw disturbed them to their very core. Katniss wept as the Hunger Games played. Child after child, slaughtered in the most gruesome ways, all for the entertainment and laughs of the country.

Trina herself was brought to tears, struggling not to weep when she witnessed these horrifying acts. "In this future," Katniss started with a quaking voice, "This is what savagery was produced. A world of anarchy and chaos brought about by the destruction of governments. Your silly war, maybe it was over who pissed off who, but look at what the cost is." Katniss looked up and slowly clenched her fists. "A century from now, my children still play in the radiation left over from your nuclear attacks! We still suffer the aftershocks, and even though we ended the Hunger Games, our land is still covered in a thick smog that may never go away. You want to protect this planet, you want to secure your future generations and give them hope, but what hope is there that leads to _this?_ I've got scars, physical and emotional, that shouldn't even be here. You tell me, is this war really worth it? All power has gotten anyone was more destruction!"

The hologram projected a final scene, and that was the aftermath of the release of the bombs. Silence filled the air as they watched planet earth, no longer green and blue, but grey and filled with constant explosions that never ceased.

Artie fell to his knees as Trina's stomach tightened. She fought down the bile in her stomach and turned her gaze away from the scene. "What have we become as leaders?" She asked, gaining the attention of all the other nations. "When we fail our own." She wiped her eyes and cleared her throat. "We're supposed to make decisions best for our country, for the lives of those who _trust__us_ to do the right thing. Since when is the right thing the very thing that takes the lives of millions? The very thing that_ destroys_ our descendants? Have we learned nothing from history? What does fighting do? Does it solve problems, or create new ones? What I'm proposing is a treaty to end this war, and to put away the nuclear weapons once and for all."

"She has a point," Russia's leader remarked quietly. "We doom only ourselves with this war…Perhaps we have all wished to be better than the other for far too long?"

"It's this crazy war that's nonsense," Replied England's leader. "We should just sit down over tea and discuss this like proper gents."

It was not long before a peace treaty had been worked out, but it was for the betterment of society. The war was over, the weapons were put away, but the devastation of what had already happened still remained. At the very least, it was not as vast as it could have been, and Artie Snow would remain in prison for quite some time.

In the future, year 2150, Katniss Everdeen sat with her two children and husband, Peeta on their luxurious couch. They had a family album open and were reading about the first female president, their ancestor who stopped a terrifying world war.

There was a life mentioned that she never knew, one where perhaps it was an alternate woman who'd visited her ancestor to tell the tale of horror foreseen. "No one knows what happened to that mysterious girl," Katniss said with a gentle voice, "Some say she disappeared shortly after the peace treaty was signed."

"She sounds great momma," her daughter marveled in awe, "Just like our ancestor."

"I'm sure she was." Katniss glanced up to see her sister, Prim, walking in the room while washing her hands with a towel. The girl smiled sweetly and motioned to the kitchen. "Dinner is ready if you guys are ready to eat."

Katniss had recently returned home from overseas, she met Peeta in the military and had fallen quickly for him. It was a whirlwind romance. America was going strong, and foreign relations were now much better than they had been a hundred years ago. The threat of nuclear weapons was gone completely, but there was still the fear that some country might decide to pull them out again.

Regardless, all was well, but to some the Hunger Games of old were still oddly faint-as though dreams of a time that never truly occurred. Or had they, but perhaps the manifestations of a far different time?

Whether Katniss Everdeen realized truly, she did once again save her great nation. Or perhaps it was the world, though her impact may only have remained known to those of the past.

Even old President Snow couldn't turn his nose up anywhere, for no government office was willing to hire the descendant of a man who attempted to betray a nation. An ironic twist of fate that perhaps Katniss would enjoy, knowing that now her family lived in the riches of the upper state, but the descendants of Artie Snow lived now in poverty. No longer able to terrorize anyone.

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Something quick I wanted to draft up for you, hopefully you enjoyed it-I know I did.


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